


Lines Drawn

by Morning66



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Friendship, Gen, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Post-Sirius Black's Prank on Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29035059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: It's Peter who tells him the morning after, Peter with a tired, red face and half moons under his very wide eyes. Peter, perched on a chair beside his hospital bed, looking scared and sad and confused.(Or, The Prank)
Relationships: Remus Lupin & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Lines Drawn

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! =)
> 
> Warnings: swearing 
> 
> Basically this came out of me thinking about the prank and how it's portrayed in canon. It seems like in canon it's not a big deal: Sirius as an adult doesn't seem particularly remorseful and if you look at the timeline, Snape's worst memory happens after it and so obviously they haven't matured greatly or whatever. So anyway, I guess I wanted to write something little to analyze that and work it through my head.

It's Peter who tells him the morning after, Peter with a tired, red face and half moons under his very wide eyes. Peter, perched on a chair beside his hospital bed, looking scared and sad and confused. His explanation is stilted at best, involving lots of "Ers" and "Well, I wasn't there, buts".

Remus doesn't interrupt him once though, listening in ever growing horror at the events of the night before. When Peter's finally finished and sits silently wringing his hands, Remus breathes out a quiet, "Fuck."

Remus isn't Sirius, who drops cusses every other word when he feels like it, or James who's been known to string together four or five vulgar words in elaborate and creative combinations. No, when Remus swears, he means business.

"Yeah," Peter says, "Sorry, Remus."

"'S not your fault," Remus says because Peter hadn't had anything to do with the entire incident. He'd been held up by Slughorn about the T he got on his latest essay.

Remus presses his fingers into his eyes, hard until he sees colors in the blackness. He wants to throw up or cry or yell. Maybe all three. Maybe all three at the same time.

He can't, though, not now. Maybe later, when he's alone in his bed, the curtains pulled, a silencing spell cast. For now, he just stares at Peter with hollow eyes.

"Where are they now?" he croaks. 

"James went to talk to Sirius," Peter says and Remus is grateful that for once he doesn't call them Prongs and Padfoot. That's not something he wants to hear today.

They sit in silence for a while, Remus soaking in his misery and Peter picking at a scab on his left forearms. Finally, Madame Pomfrey shoes Peter to class.

"You need anything, Remus?" Peter asks when he leaves, gathering his bag.

"Take notes for me, will you, Pete?" Remus calls even though he knows Peter's handwriting is near illegible because it'll make the other boy feel a bit better.

Peter smiles weakly. "Sure thing, Remus."

Remus spends the day in the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey doting on him more than usual. His body aches, his bones ache, his muscles ache, but no more than usual. In fact, if they hadn't told him, he wouldn't have even known something so horrible happened.

Around midday Dumbledore comes, eyes twinkling ever so slightly less than usual, purple robes swaying around his thin figure. He explains what happened, assuring Remus that all is fine, that Snape has promised not to tell (because Snape's word means anything) and that Sirius has detention every night for a week.

A week, Remus thinks, a week? Black nearly fucking killed someone.

Dumbledore leaves him with a pat on the back, a lemon drop, and a sick feeling in his stomach. He almost killed someone and they've all packaged it away, nice and neat and perfect and look how everything worked out.

The sun is setting when Sirius and James come. Remus hears them outside, laughing in the hallway, voices bouncing off the wall. He wishes they would just go away, but he doubts there's any way to avoid the confrontation that's about to happen.

James pulls the curtain open with a loud swish, revealing him and Sirius.

James grins hesitantly, awkwardly. His hand is on Sirius's shoulder, holding on gently. Sirius, for all the mess he's caused, doesn't look particularly worse for the wear, save for a single black eye. 

"Er, I wanted to apologize," Sirius says, haltingly, as if the idea of an apology is unfamiliar to him. Honestly, it probably is. Sirius never apologizes for anything.

Remus lets out a sigh. "Okay."

James gives Sirius's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as if apologizing for nearly making your best friend a murderer is something that requires a lot of moral support.

"I shouldn't have..." Sirius starts, then pauses to think. "I shouldn't have put you in that position."

Remus can't help but notice he doesn't sound particularly remorseful for putting Snape in that position.

"Fine, Sirius," Remus says, sucking out any emotion, any anger, any hurt, from his voice. He wants to yell at Sirius, but he doesn't think it'll do any good and doesn't want to lose his friends.

A relieved grin spreads across Sirius's face. "So we're good, then?" he asks, not waiting for a response before continuing, "Because you'll never believe what happened with Evans today, Moony."

Remus doesn't want to do this, not today. Doesn't want to pretend nothing happened or, even worse, that he's already over what happened. 

"Sirius, can you just leave, please?" Remus asks. "I just--I want to be alone now, alright?"

Sirius jerks back as if shocked, as if he isn't used to getting rejected. He shoots James a look and they have a conversation with their eyes the way they always do, the way Remus has always been jealous of.

"Sure, Remus," Sirius says. "Night, then. Feel better."

With a last glance, he strides out of the hospital wing. James lingers by the edge of the bed. 

"Remus--"

"James, I nearly killed someone. Black nearly made me a fucking murderer." Remus's voice cracks on the word murderer.

James pushes his fingers through his already messy hair. "He didn't mean to. You know how he gets carried away and--"

"But he did it, James," Remus murmurs, anger bleeding through.

"Nothing happened, though. No harm, no foul," James asserts.

"James, someone could have died!" It comes out louder than Remus means it to, but it's only a fraction of the internal storm raging inside him. 

James flinches at the tone. "Y'know how his family's been recently. Well, always, but especially now..."

In that moment, Remus gets it. Gets that James thinks all this is crazy too, but in the end he'll always be loyal to Sirius. Crazily, irrationally loyal to his best friend.

"Go after your dog, will you, James?" It comes out harsher than he intends it.

James blanches. "Remus--"

Remus sucks in a breath. "I'm sorry," he says. "I didn't mean it. I'm just tired and need sleep."

James nods understanding and pats his shoulder. "Probably a good idea."

When he leaves, Remus watches him go, body heavy. He hears voices when James gets to the hallway and knows Sirius must have been waiting. Typical.

The thing is, Remus is glad to have friends. He never expected to have friendly acquaintances, much less honest to goodness friends. Still, when it comes down to it, Remus knows where the lines are drawn, knows what side will be taken no matter what and it's not his side.

Remus sighs and flips over. He wonders if Pomfrey will give him a Dreamless Sleep potion. Merlin knows he wants it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
